Intentional communities are those groups of individuals who share common physical resources or facilities as a common environment in which the members participate. Examples of intentional communities are cruise lines, hotels, resorts, health clubs, homeowner associations, residential golf communities or universities. A member is an individual admitted to the intentional community and as such the interests and needs of the members of the intentional community are of a specific nature relating to the nature or mission of that intentional community.
Also typical of an intentional community is a separate management structure where individuals have specific management duties. Because an intentional community is a community environment, there is an ongoing interaction between the members and management to administer the activities and facilities of the community.
Continuing Care Retirement Communities (“CCRC”'s), for example, may be characterized as an intentional community comprised of residents (members) of senior living communities that are administered by professional management and include physical assets such as dormitories, vehicles, recreational facilities, etc. CCRC's typically use a variety of “inside” services administered or provided by management that are accessed and advertised within the community via bulletin boards, fliers, announcements and other utilities to communicate and implement available services, amenities and conduct transactions related to the facilities used by the intentional community. Monthly calendar and activity boards, for example, are generally placed near the elevator or front desk, and are a principal source of information about dining menus, current activities, and newsworthy events. A daily menu might be provided on a bulletin board located just outside the entrance of a dining room, while a bulletin board located next to the residents' mailboxes might provide the residents with access to other types of information. At many CCRC's the front desk plays a major role in assisting the residents with accessing the numerous services provided by the community, and is similar to that of a hotel concierge.
There are typically also a number of “outside” services provided by third parties that are of particular relevance to members of an intentional community as well. These may be commercial services or vendors that are separate entities from the management and otherwise apart from any information distribution system or utility for managing business relevant to the members of the intentional community. With respect to a CCRC, for example, local medical, transportation, home care, dry cleaning or entertainment services might be needed by a predominant number of the members of the intentional community. There may be other, non-commercial outside services needed as well, such as a utility to communicate with friends, relatives and government offices.
These outside services typically have a low or extemporaneous integration with the information distribution system used within the intentional community, or with use of the other facilities used by an intentional community. Members usually have to individually locate and make arrangements with the outside service, and marketing to members of an intentional community by these outside services is conducted in a haphazard and inefficient manner. For example, on occasion a merchant might arrive at a special arrangement with the facilities manager for providing goods to the members and this is presented to the community members through fliers or other postings. A third party may need to use the facilities of the intentional community, to offer instructional classes of health screening for example, so special arrangement with the facilities manager need be made and this is presented to the community members through fliers or other postings, usually without benefit of useful feedback by the community members.
Present systems used for the scheduling, transactional and informational needs of the members of an intentional community are therefore fragmented and difficult to use. Without an interactive and centralized source of information and data collection there is no utility to conduct the ordering and payment for services pertaining to that intentional community or a utility to do so in an interactive manner, in real time. Moreover, any ancillary commercial services attractive to members of an intentional community may be separate and apart from any information distribution system used by that intentional community.
What is needed then is a centralized, integrated system for delivering such communications, scheduling, transactional, informational and other services to members of the intentional community.
Such an integrated system would reduce the need for an individual member to locate and engage disparate services or to have to schedule services at different locales. Such a system might also enable a centralized data collection point to coordinate transactions and reduce the need for redundant data entry common to most or to all of the inside and outside services offered by an intentional community.